HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — If the Donald Sterling affair didn’t have your undivided attention before, it should now.

The Los Angeles Clippers’ ownership drama has taken a sinister turn. Clippers superstar and Players Association President Chris Paul is throwing out the possibility of a boycott if Sterling remains owner of the team.

The mere mention, in a probate court hearing, of Clippers president and coach Doc Rivers wanting to go elsewhere if Sterling stays was bad enough. But Paul leading a boycott of his team is a doomsday scenario no one wants to see. If Paul, All-Star Blake Griffin and the rest of the Clippers refuse to take the court when training camp begins, this situation takes on an entirely new dynamic.

“That’s something me and Doc are both talking about,” Paul said Thursday after coaching his AAU program, CP3. “Something has to happen, and something needs to happen soon — sooner rather than later.”

Interim Clippers CEO Dick Parsons testified earlier in the week in state court that Rivers told him on multiple occasions that he doesn’t think he wants to continue coaching the team if Sterling remains in control of the franchise.

“Unacceptable” is the most appropriate term for the ongoing hijacking of the Clippers’ championship window. They didn’t deserve to have their 2013-14 season irreparably damaged in April when Donald Sterling first was caught on tape making racist and derogatory comments, remarks that led NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to ban him from the league for life.

Paul’s dual role as leader of the Clippers and the players’ association requires him to take a dramatic stand if Sterling is in control of the team when training camps start in early October. Solidarity is a must. A potential boycott may be the only leverage available to players to voice their disappointment in a matter that is going to be decided in the courtroom, not on the court.

The Clippers considered a boycott when the news of Sterling’s comment broke during the first round of the playoffs in April, but decided to play instead and stage a formal protest by not wearing the Clippers name across their chests during warm ups before Game 5 against the Golden State Warriors.

“It was a real consideration,” Jamal Crawford told us on the Hang Time Podcast after the Clippers’ season ended. “We were all ready to stand strong and do whatever had to be done.”

Rivers is the one who convinced Crawford and the rest of the Clippers to play on. Now, this talk about Rivers bolting and the players boycotting if Sterling remains illustrates the seismic shift in the mood around the organization as the court proceedings continue. Parsons, appointed by the NBA to be the interim CEO of the Clippers, testified in court that the franchise could fall into a “death spiral” if Clippers fans, sponsors, players and coaches flee the scene should Donald Sterling remain the owner.

The closing arguments in the current legal fight — determining whether Sterling’s wife, Shelly Sterling, was within her rights to sell the franchise to Ballmer for that record $2 billion — come Monday in probate court. That’s when we’ll find out if the agreed-upon sale to Ballmer will proceed or all involved will be plunged into even deeper legal waters. (And even if the sale is allowed, there’s a good chance that Donald Sterling will appeal the ruling.)

Deadlines for the sale to be finalized have shifted with each and every legal turn. The initial date was July 15, before the extension to Aug. 15. The NBA will resume termination proceedings if the sale is not closed by Sept. 15. That could provide Paul and his teammates just weeks to decide what they’re going to do before training camp begins.

Based on what he said in Vegas, Paul is still formulating a plan. But it seems as if he and the rest of the Clippers are ready to dig in for a long, hard fight.

68 Comments

Although in no way do I agree with the opinions of Sterling, I’m shocked at how far people will/can take something like this. My race is isolated, looked down upon and called names daily… and by who? Every other race! That’s who!. Come to think of it, my religion is looked down upon as well! Wake up people! There is, and there always will be racism and there isn’t a damn thing anyone (other than GOD) can do about it. Am I racist? absolutely… am I happy about that… No! Do I wish we could all get along? Hell Yes! Do I want to be racist? No I do not! The sad thing is, I don’t want to be racist, but I am and I don’t know how to change it…

lbj-
July 25, 2014 at 11:24 am
a boycott won’t earn them a ring, they could take this opportunity to combine forces with Lebron James in cleveland.
we trade cupcakes, a very sincere letter signed by the hand of the King himself, cola and ray allen the 3pts bandwagon legend for chris paul and doc rivers LOLLOL lbj

if I were Adam I would say ok the players that under contract your contract is voided and you can have a new contract with the clippers or you can sign with another team and for the players that just signed with the clippers I would say you have 10 day window to keep your contract with the clippers or you can sign with another team and then we will see how many players play for the clippers if the sterlings are still the owners

I stand corrected. It looks like Kelly brought up the issue of the players breaching their contracts. However, this move was encouraged rather than condemned, which strengthens the point I made about society’s general ambivalence toward keeping promises.

They get paid like that because of the long miles they put on their bodies night in & out for 5-7 straight months every year & don’t worry about what someone else can do for the world unless you’re helping it

This is getting out of hand. Sterling has been behaving like this for decades and now the players are trying to take advantage of the new, inexperienced commissioner to get rid of him. Interesting to see if their tactic, which is undoubtedly a bit over the top, would backfire on them.

Does that make it alright? & if he has been behaving like this, it should’ve been stopped years ago in fear of it getting out because of the money the NBA would lose. But David Stern was great at keeping things under wraps

Not taking the court may not be the best solution considering this is your job. You signed a contract and are getting paid for it. A better solution in my opinion would be what Charles Barkley has said early about Adam silver voiding all the clippers contracts and allow the players/staff to become FA and choose if they want to stay or not.

What about the Africans, whites, Mexican etc who work soo hard to make money for themselves and their family? Working their butts off to put food on the table. Working with people who make stupid comments. Knowing they have to work at this job because now a days it’s so hard to find job. People don’t appreciate what they have. The coach, players need to focus on the game of basketball and appreciate what they have.

yea but everyone else at a medial or average job doesnt have a boss who is as public as an nba owner. When youre getting paid millions of dollars, or sign the contract to buy a team, you agree to be held to a higher standard. donald sterling violated that contract when he made those ridiculous comments. If the players DONT stand up, who will? These guys are in the limelight, not like you or me, so you cant compare it to someone with a “regular” job. and it doesnt matter how much you make, NO ONE should have to stand by while someone like that is openly racist…especially not in 2014. the main difference is these people are in the public high so they are held to a higher standard than your horrible boss..that doesnt mean they should stand for it

I think everyone criticising Paul or even downplaying Sterling’s comments should think about this: These players have leverage, they are the faces of the league. I think there is some true heartfelt concern among them when playing for a guy like Sterling, hearing those comments. It is not up to us to condemn them for not playing. All the blame lies on Sterling. These players are not only (hopefully) acting the way the feel is right, they also have a chance to impact society like not many other people do. I think I would do the same, consider not to take the court out of moral reasons.

I have read some of the comments and I don’t think people realize that allowing these types of comments (once they’re out in the open) is not acceptable. Allowing it means digressing to an earlier time when so many people did not have rights. It wouldn’t have been acceptable if it was toward Mexicans, Chinese, the disabled or people with mental illnesses, etc. The remarks were discriminating and discrimination within an organization is illegal.

Mr. Sterling was singling out a specific group of people showing his disdain for them because of their color. How long do African Americans have to continue to put up with this?

Lmaoo. Boycott because you don’t want a certain person have a certain job because of stupid comments. What about the people who have regular jobs and have to deal with people who are mean and says stupid things everyday? They should be thankful to be in the nba making that kind of money. Grow up, forgive and forget. Focus on basketball and let the court worry about him. Also don’t blame sterling for destroying the season. The clippers just wasn’t good enough this season. Let’s move on and get ready for next season. Sooo over this.

They should just move the clippers to seattle . LA already has a basketball team n the lakers and im tired of listening to seattle fans complaining they dont got a time. so if we move the clips to seattle it’ll help everyone.

Yeah sure take away the season, take away something positive black people are doing and have them do something they are not good at that’s makes sense. These guys play basketball and work hard doing it. I am a black man, Software Engineer at Google and basketball fan. The things that motivated me to go to college and work hard is seeing how hard these guys work at their craft. I also see how they try to give their families things they have never had and so I do the same.

Public speaking is not their talent, basketball is. Let them play and inspire others to be better. Racist white people like him are the real problem. That is why black people act the way they do because the media tells them to act like that. “F**k a b***h, seal drugs, murder anybody that messes with you, have a don’t give a s**t attitude.” We need to show black people positive role models and stop them from listening to the rap music and watching game movies.

Now as far as the Clippers are concerned, the players and fans should boycott the games so show Donald that we will not support him, when the revenue dries up and the worth starting going down he will be forced to sell.

Not sure I will live long enough to see how this ends, 80 year old with a form of dementia gets badgered by his mixed breed (Black & Mexican) girlfriend to say what she is probably getting paid to get him to say and wow, this conversation (no others have been mentioned) gets recorded (illegal) and released to TMZ, Rather he is a racist or bigot I really don’t know although some other things in his life indicate so. Right or wrong I think the NBA will pay dearly for this one. Wonder what his tax liability will be on what he receives from the NBA settlement or the $2Billion sale would have been.

o please. the clippers season was not destroyed becuz of this sterling scandal. they are not good enough to beat okc or the spurs. doc rivers was lucky to have the first big 3 and then jumped to another stacked team hoping the same thing would happen. he is not a bad coach but didnt want to stick it out with the rebuilding and pulled a lebron. too many ppl trying to take the easy road in sports now. thanks lebaby. thats your fault. they act like they have to talk to guy and hang out with this guy on a daliy basis. the bottom line is that he was illegally recorded and all he said is for her to stop bringing the black guys she is screwing to the games. he never once said the n word that so many black ppl love saying yet say its such a horrific word and he never compared them to slaves. i have heard that so many times then listened to the recording and am stil looking for the racist remarks that were so bad that they are putting this old man through this. i am glad he is standing up for his rights becuz you can say and think what ever you want in the privacy of your own home and thats exactly what he did. black ppl need to get over them selves becuz they are keeping racism alive. proven fact…there are more racist black ppl than white ppl in this country. how do i kno? becuz there could never be a black president in this country without a ton of votes from white ppl. i am not racist. i am just pointing out the facts.

Clearly, you don’t have the brain capacity to understand that sterling was making racist remarks.Before you comment, you should use proper grammar.Sterling’s mentality is no different from a slave master. I’ve learned that white people that think like that are cowards and afraid of change. But its society/media that gives white people the sense of entitlement.

Clearly you are a little racist toward white people. I’m white. What is this sense of entitlement you are talking about? Racism is alive toward all races. Also commenting on someone’s grammar that was clearly not trying to “type correctly for you” does not make your point anymore valid. Makes you seem like a condescending prick if anything.

“Chuck,” that’s an idiotic comment or a slick apologia. Racism didn’t magically evaporate in this country when Barack Obama got elected appointed a black man as Attorney General; if anything, Sterling’s recorded comments that stirred up the controversy in the first place should indicate that reflexive anti-black racism by people in powerful places (as opposed to internet comment sections) is alive and flourishing. As for ‘going into the hood,’ I think the NBA has done more than most organizations to promote and celebrate family (which means a lot of different configurations, not just two-parent undivorced families who are themselves the minority among most ethnic groups).

Props to Sekou for an important post. All this ‘homecoming’ to Akron/Cleveland good vibes can evaporate fast if the Clippers fiasco overshadows the season.

It’s really sad that this whole debacle is still ongoing. To be frank, I don’t think Donald Sterling ever should have had the privilege of owning an NBA team. With that being said, I think his comments received an undue amount of attention considering that he’s an old, sick, delusional man who made a host of nasty remarks in a private conversation. Also, the court proceedings have only confirmed that fact that Donald Sterling’s mind is a sad, rotten place. If he were able to think rationally he would happily take his 2 billion with him to his grave, but instead he continues to fight on and every day he owns team he puts its value in jeopardy. I just hope that the players and Doc Rivers don’t ruin the good thing they have going in LA by acting hastily or rashly.

a boycott won’t earn them a ring, they could take this opportunity to combine forces with Lebron James in cleveland.
we trade cupcakes, a very sincere letter signed by the hand of the King himself, cola and ray allen the 3pts bandwagon legend for chris paul and doc rivers

How bout just the very sincere letter with a pretty please on the end. Then maybe you can get Blake and DJ as well. And if he says I promise to be your best friend, maybe the Cavs can keep Ray Allen. Wow, brilliant.

I don’t know all the specifics however what I would have done is went to the other 29 owners and voted to force sterling to give up the team. At that point it would have been an easier court battle because it would have showed that this one shareholder is having an overall negative FINANCIAL impact on the league as a whole. However what the NBA seems to have done is put themselves in a domestic legal battle which seems like it’s is going to expand the legal process.

They should have never allowed Shelley to sell the team they should have voted both shelley and donald out first to set a precedence and then went to court which would have forced the sterlings to be fighting to get back into NBA ownership. Instead now they’re already in and if I were them not only would a take the two billion but I would fight to make sure I make as much money as I can along with the two billion which might cause the former microsoft owner to want to withdraw his bid.

Look at the argument

“the current legal fight — determining whether Sterling’s wife, Shelly Sterling, was within her rights to sell the franchise to Ballmer for that record $2 billion”

This shows you the NBA handled this situation wrong! The NBA needs a better legal team if you had the power to vote sterling out you should have done that FIRST!!! The NBA should have sold the other owners on why getting Sterling out of the NBA would make better financial sense for each franchise but instead now they’ve allowed the Sterlings to take the upper hand and I’m not saying the sterlings are going to win this thing but they are going to drag it out.

As far as I’m concerned being that the sterlings have been in legal problems before they probably pre-planned this move and the NBA took the bait. The NBA legal team has to be smarter than this use the powers you do have and force him out and then make him fight to get back in. Come on NBA

@ Chuck, your comment is kinda all over the place. First, I really don’t see what a black president and Attorney general have to do with this topic. Second, I hope you realize that basketball and the “hood” are not intertwined. There are a lot of people in the “hood” that wouldnt even care about basketball (the “hood” is very multicultural). Besides, why do you believe that people who live in the “hood” dont value education, marriage and fatherhood?? There is a link between income and infidelity where those with more money are more likely to have an affair. You seem to make a lot of stereotypes in your comment that may or may not be warrented. Although you seem to be trying to create what you believe is a better place, I suggest you take this time to question your own stereotypes first before pushing your values on others.

Talk is cheap. How about canceling the season and have the players go into the hood and talk frankly about life–education, marriage, fatherhood? That would be so much more important that setting up a straw horse n a time when we have a black President and Attorney General. You know the problem isn’t a low-life owner but a culture that denigrates the values that we should all possess.

Chuck, wow! Quite a leap to Obama and Holder? Professional basketball players are employees and if they chose to not report to work/breach their contracts because of management/ownership issues that is their right. If they ‘lose their jobs” and are sued by ownership that is understandable. They can seek employment elsewhere and have their lawyer(s) deal with the contractual mess. Sometimes issues are pretty “black or white” and this is one! The NBA WILL be stronger without Sterling, he’s been a PIA for decades! And,….where is ‘the hood”?

Whoa there, son. Your platform about cultural values is misdirecting the issue at hand, which is the players of the Clippers organization taking issue with their owner. The rest of the NBA and black America as a whole is something else entirely. Furthermore, you seem to be implying that the NBA isn’t filled with married, educated fathers already (many of which are not black or American, and not players) and even more recommend that they cancel the season to preach values that can very well be preached without such a ridiculous, drastic action. In cancelling the season you’re also suggesting they impact the lives of thousands of stadium workers, bookies, referees, etc. Think before you speak please.

The bottom line is Donald Sterling wants to keep the team to destroy the NBA. The league officials want him out, the coaching staff wants him out, and the players want him out. If you are offered 2 billion which is the highest amount of money any team has sold for, why fight that? The answer is simple, he wants to ruin the image of the league, and create kaos. This whole ordeal is about being relevant and power. It has nothing to do with low income areas or president Obama. Let’s not make it bigger than it is, Donald Sterling has no regard for the League or it’s coaches or players. If he wants to clean up his image, maybe he should show up in various “hoods” and preach life, education, marriage, fatherhood, and let’s not forget character and integrity.

Same reason why a company like say, Ford wouldn’t take a year off to “go into the hood”. At the end of the day the NBA, NFL, MLB, etc all those sport leagues they are businesses, They are looking to bring in revenue. Asking millionaires to take a year off and calling them selfish because they don’t do what you think they should be doing, is selfish. These guys didn’t have everything handed to them they worked harder then everyone else, and if you don’t thinks so look at all the kids who play in high school, who work hard in college but get no where. I know this isn’t a popular thing to say but society will never be perfect, just ask yourself am I willing to take a year off of work and help the less fortunate? The answer will be no. They world will never be a perfect place, and as a African-American Male it hurts me when I see the less privilege suffer and I want to help but there is an order to everything. 1.Family 2.Friends 3.Yourself 4.Community

The truth is there is enough ignorance in the world, to allow Donald Sterling to stay is like saying the NBA (doesn’t) Care. If you do not like or respect any race outside your own then do not expect them to work for or with you, period!!. It is 2014, not 1875, the league is multicultural like the most of the world. Adam Silver did the right thing by banning him, and Daniel Sterling should do the right thing, take his 2 billion, then retire. It would be a shame if there was a boycott due to Sterling, and the real fans owners, shareholders, as well as employees of the NBA had to suffer.

Chuck couldn’t have been serious with that reply … he said something stupid and outlandish to evoke responses. I believe he’s not dumb enough to make statements like those if he wasn’t just trying to elicit responses. His grammar was okay, and most of his spelling correct (other than canceling) … so he must have been putting us on with that ridiculous reply.